Bee update

[hatman]

I have wronged my dog.

flurgh identified the "bee" in the pictures as a yellowjacket. I haven't had much experience with them. I do remember that when I was a kid, some of my classmates mentioned having encountered them, but that's about it.

Done a couple of quick 'net searches. Disappointed that the best source I've found so far has been Wiki. It'll have to do.

The relevant point is that yellowjackets are wasps, not bees. And the important thing about that is that they can sting more than once... and aren't shy about doing so. It had occurred to me that perhaps the dog had been stung in his wild puppyhood. Before we adopted him, he lived with another family who let him wander the conservation land that bordered their property. We know he had lyme disease (previous owner didn't believe in vaccinations, among other things). I'm thinking now, though, that he was stung yesterday. His fur is too thick for me to get a good look, but it would definitely shed new light on his reactions. Poor pup.

He's okay now, anyway. A single sting hurts for a while, but otherwise isn't harmful if you aren't allergic.

Wiki says that yellowjackets are usually about half an inch long, with queens being more like three quarters. The one I caught was definitely bigger than that. The penny is three quarters, and you can see by the pictures that it was longer. Another site, however, says that they can be up to an inch long.

I'm thinking I may have caught a queen scouting for a place to build a new nest. It's a little late in the year, I think (supposed to be early Spring), but we've had unusual weather lately, which may have thrown things off a bit.

The other factor is that there's another one buzzing around the ceiling, trying to get out through the kitchen skylight. I think it's about the same size. Could be a second queen. Or could be a sign that there's a nest nearby and workers are out scavenging. We have had nests in the yard before (and once in the pole of the long-neglected basketball hoop), though I'm not sure they were yellowjacket nests. If there is one, we could apparently have thousands of workers buzzing around the yard this summer.

Anyway, the second wasp has consistently remained on the kitchen ceiling. If I try to shoot it down and fail to make the kill, I'm liable to piss it off. I'll try to trap it if it descends, but otherwise I'll leave it be until it... never mind. It just made it to the back door, and I let it out.

Still concerned, though, that two of them made it in. It makes the possibility of a nearby nest (with access through the walls) far more likely.

Comments

[rainbow]

I had been wondering yesterday if it was a paperwasp; this time of year they stray in our house repeatedly and have to be rehomed back outside.

I don't know about yellowjackets, but when paperwasps are flying their hind legs dangle down (which looks very funny), and they make the most fascinating paper homes.

I haven't been stung when rehoming them, but P has; it only hurt a short time, though.

eta: pws are *far* less aggressive than yellow jackets, fwiw.

[hatman]

I believe "paperwasp" is another term for "yellowjacket." Though it seems that "yellowjacket" is used to describe about a dozen related species.

How much the sting hurts can vary from person to person (depending on how allergic you are to the venom). Glad to know it wasn't too bad for you. And the dog seems perfectly normal today.

[rainbow]

No, they're different species. Yellowjackets make enclosed nests that looks sort of like balls or bags, while paperwasps make open ones that are sort of umbrella shaped and you can see the cells in them.

I'm so glad the dog is better!

[hatman]

Ah. My experience with stinging insects has thankfully been rather limited.

With the exception of the memorable time that I discovered what wasps were when, in my earl childhood, I stomped on a group of them. Barefoot. (Or maybe they were bald-faced hornets? I remember they were predominantly black.)

Oh, and the time I accidentally swallowed a bee and it stung the roof of my mouth. The stinger supposedly dissolved within hours, but the spot still hurt from time to time for months after.

[rosebee]

Uck! Hopefully you don't have a nest nearby, that would not be fun.

My folks get wasps (or yellowjackets, I forget) that like to nest between their vinyl siding and their screwed-in-place shutters. They go in and spray them once a year or so.

Did you ever get the 2nd wasp out (or killed)?

[hatman]

Oh boy. That's much more fun than we get. Down in Florida, the apartment has storm shutters which roll out from a box attached to the outside wall above the doors. We leave them down over the summer. Come back in the winter to find that some enterprising little birds have built a nest inside the empty box (which means flying vertically up a gap that I don't think is more than an inch wide), filling it with woven straw. Bit of a pain getting it cleared out, but nothing like having a wasp's nest...

Anyway, if you parents are plagued by wasps, at least they can look forward to a friendly visit from a rose bee.

The second wasp did indeed make it out. Landed on the window in the back door. So I opened the door, stepped back, and used some paper to fan up a breeze. Haven't seen another wasp since, so... well, I'd cross my fingers, but I'm Jewish.

[ksarasara.livejournal.com]

Ooh ouch! I'd definitely be on the hunt for a nest or have an inspector out or something.

[doranwen.livejournal.com]

Hope you don't end up with a lot of yellowjackets! They love the roof around my house, and we always have to knock nests down as they start building them--they usually give up then and go elsewhere (so you may want to poke around and discourage them from building that way). I've found they're pretty dumb creatures and I haven't been stung by one for a long time, but the poor dog must've not felt very good!